Cerebus the Aardvark is done and dusted. In his place comes another extraordinary fictional creation: Sir Harry Flashman hero of the British Empire and all round scoundrel. Join me as I go through the Flashman Papers one damn chapter at a time. Books will also be reviewed and there will be the occasional rant.

Friday, April 9, 2010

Talking To Tarim

Going by the title I had the feeling this may be a sort of Mind Games type chapter. The timeline here is a little tricky. It actually takes place inside Cerebus' head while the events of the previous chapter are going on around him.

He finds himself somewhere in space standing on a stone platform that seems very familiar from previous visits to a similar spacescape. Cerebus' only companion is the glowing ball, which now seems to communicate using words. It's happily talking to itself while Cerebus scowls at it. The ball keeps saying that something is going to happen even after Cerebus asks what is going to happen. In some ways the ball is not unlike the Elf, it's entirely possible that they're created by the same being or maybe even they are the same thing.

The ball tells Cerebus that the Final Ascension is coming, but it doesn't know what that is. It goes on to tell Cerebus that it was supposed to transport a huge gold ball up to the top of the tower, and that was how coins were created, it in fact created coins on Tarim's instruction. I can only assume that the coin that Cerebus picked up after Bran pointed it out was one of those original coins, because that was the one that started the glowing ball's manifestation on this plane.

According to the ball once you can get the gold ball up to the top of the tower you ascend to heaven, or whatever you call your version of the afterlife. Cerebus doesn't really like the idea of what the ball sees as the perfect afterlife, there's no drinking. To placate the aardvark the ball says that there will be drinking, but no hangovers. Cerebus likes the sound of that.

Cerebus tries arguing with the ball when it dares to suggest that he may not be the one to take the gold sphere to the top of the tower, it's hard to argue with the ball, because rather like Bran it simply agrees with everything that Cerebus says, but never actually commits to anything. Cerebus nearly falls off the platform in a huff and only just manages to stay on it and then demands that the ball get him back to the hotel. This is when the ball engulfs his head.

Cerebus comes to where Julius and Co left him, with a gold sphere in his hands. He's looking at Boobah, Julius and the genuflecting Powers. He asks what's up and the Julius looks at Powers and says 'Do you want to tell him, or shall I?'Beautiful punchline and leads right into the next chapter.